Felting needle



E. P. FOSTER FELTING NEEDLE Nov. 25, 1969 Filed May 15, 1968 United States Patent 3,479,708 FELTING NEEDLE Edson P. Foster, 409, S. 29th St., P.0. Box 527, Manitowoc, Wis. 54220 Filed May 15, 1968, Ser. No. 729,345 Int. Cl. D04h 18/00 U.S. Cl. 28-4 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A felting needle having an elongated body portion of a cross sectional configuration having a major axis and a minor axis, such as of diamond cross section, having corner edges extending longitudinally of the body portion at the opposite ends of the major axis, and in which barbs are formed only in such corner edges.

Background of the invention Field of the inventi0n.The invention has to do with felting needles that are employed for compacting and interlacing fibrous material.

Description of the prior art.Felting needles are well known in the art and embody a body portion defining the actual working section of the needle which carries the barbs for penetrating a batt of fibrous material for cornpacting the latter by reciprocation of the needles relative thereto. Various body cross section shapes have been devised, including square, round, twisted, grooved, concave (triangular with concave sides) and triangular. The square body and to some extent the round body, were designed so that more barbs could be placed on the body. The concave body type of felting needle has a reduced cross sectional area which leaves a smaller hole in the punched material. The grooved needle was designed to carry fibers on the point only. By far the rnost widely used cross sectional shape is an equilateral triangle with rounded corners. The several felting needles of the prior art have all suffered from the fact that the fibers engaged by the barbs are not retained under substantially uniform tension throughout the mass of fibrous material with the result that the fibers slip off the barbs without being interlaced with other fibers and thus reducing the efliciency of the needles.

Summary of the invention The present invention has to do with a felting needle of a construction in which all the barbs tend to function equally and hence more efficiently in interlacing fibrous material. According to the invention the stated result is achieved by providing a felting needle having a portion of a cross sectional configuration having a major axis and a minor axis, and in which the barbs are formed only in the corner edges of the body portion at the opposite ends of the major axis. By reason of such construction, the fibers on the barbs will be distributed equally into the batt on both sides of the barb at the point of contact of the barb with the fibers of the batt.

Brief description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of a felting needle constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged diagrammatic elevational view of a portion of the body portion of the needle of FIGURE 1 with parts of the needle not in true proportions for purposes of better illustrating the construction of the needle;

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view of the portion of the body portion of the felting needle of FIGURE 2 taken at right angles of the latter, and

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line 4-4 on FIGURE 3 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring now to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, there is shown a felting needle 5 constructed in accordance with the principles of my present invention which comprises an elongated body portion, indicated generally at 6, and a shank, indicated generally at 7. The lower end of the body portion 5 is pointed as at 8 to facilitate penetration of fibrous material to be compacted. The upper end of the needle may be bent substantially at right angles to the shank 7 to provide a securing element or ear 9 for clamping between a base member and a clamping member of a conventional felting needle plate. As is well known, such a needle plate is adapted to support a plurality of felting needles, such as shown in FIGURE 1, which upon reciprocation of the plate in a felting machine effects the interlacing and compacting of loose fibrous materials.

The felting needle of my present invention may be made of any ordinary or conventional needle stock having the necessary mechanical strength, for example, steel wire.

The needle of the present invention may be made from originally round steel wire stock from which a suitable length is cut to form a needle with an elongated body portion and barbs thereon by swaging.

The body portion 6 of the needle stock is swagged to provide it as best seen in FIGURE 4 with a cross sectional configuration having a major axis A and a minor axis B. The opposed corner edges 8 and 9 at the opposite ends of the major axis A are each provided with longitudinally spaced barbs 10 and 11, respectively. The barbs 10 in the corner edge 8 are offset longitudinally of the body portion of the needle with respect to the barbs 11 formed in the longitudinal corner edge 9.

The barbs 10 and 11 may be of any conventional known form in the felting art today and as shown each barb lies over a fiber receiving recess 12 in which fibers to be interlaced are received.

Upon reference now to FIGURES 2 and 3 there is shown on a greatly enlarged scale the portion of the body portion 6 adjacent the pointed end 8 thereof in position penetrating a batt 15 of fibrous material. Upon movement of the felting needle into the batt in the direction indicated by the arrow a needle hole 13 is formed. In the position of the felting needle as shown in FIGURE 3, the barb 10 on corner edge 8 most closely adjacent the pointed end of the needle has engaged a plurality of fibers at the needle hole 13 as indicated at 14 disposing them within the barb recess 12. Upon continued downward movement of the felting needle the fibers 14 are disposed to the positions as shown in the dot and dash lines extending transversely of the felting needle and upwardly in a direction toward the first barb 11 in the corner edge 9. It is important in order that fibers 14 do not escape or slip out of the recesses for the barbs that the fibers when lying in the position as indicated by the dot-dash lines are under substantially uniform tension and are of substantially equal lengths on both sides of the barb whereby they are captured and retained in the position for interlacing with other fibers of the batt. In the latter respect, it will be seen in FIGURE 4, that the fibers in the aforementioned dot-dash line position and as shown in FIG- URE 4 are disposed around the body portion 6 of the needle substantially equally to both sides of the barb and are of substantially equal lengths so that upon continued downward movement of the felting needle into the batt the forces are substantially equal and there is no tendency for the fibers to slip out of the recesses or off the barbs.

As above mentioned, the body portion 6 has a major 1 axis as at A, and a minor axis as at B and to this end is preferably of diamond cross section as best seen in FIGURE 4. In the latter figure it will be observed that the corner edges 8 and 9 are formed at acute angles of the body section. Typically the acute angles may be of about 60 each and with the remaining obtuse angles of 120. The angular relationship is not critical but does provide a good form of felting needle. In order to achieve functioning of the felting needle in a manner as above described, the corner edges at the ends of the minor axis B are not formed or provided with barbs. The felting needle of the invention only has barbs in the corner edges thereof at the ends of the major axis of the cross sectional configuration of the body portion 6.

While there has been shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that various other body cross sectional configurations may be employed but responding to the provision of minor and major axes and the provision of barbs in the corner edges at the ends of the major axis as aforediscussed.

The invention claimed is: r 1. A felting needle having an elongated body portion of a cross sectional configuration having a major axis and a minor axis, said pody portion having corner edges extending longitudinally thereof at the opposite ends of said major axis, said corner edges being defined by outwardly converging planar side walls, and barbs only in said corner edges.

2. The felting needle of claim 1 in which said body portion is of substantially diamond cross section.

3. The felting needle of claim 2 in which each of said corner edges is provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart barbs, and in which the barbs in one of said corner edges are oflset longitudinally with respect to the barbs in the other of said corner edegs.

4. A felting needle having an elongated body portion of a cross sectional configuration having tow corner edges extending longitudinally thereof at the opposite ends of an axis of said body portion extending between said two corner edges, said corner edges being defined by planar side walls converging outwardly at an acute angle, and barbs only in said corner edges.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 732,806 4/1966 Canada.

LOUIS K. RIMRODT, Primary Examiner 

